Saturday, July 19, 2008

Notes on Theology

---> Why would any man make a law forbidding adultery, or any of the other Ten Commandments for that matter? I sure wouldn't. The laws in the Bible are against things that men usually want to do. If I invented a god, I sure wouldn't put those laws down. Why would anyone think the Israelites would either?

---> The Israelites had such severe punishments like death for adultery because they had to preserve the line of Jews, without disease to disrupt them. Since these laws were ignored elsewhere, many sexual diseases have arisen. This isn't from over-time processes, but from the act of committing the actions. God was right to say "don't do this" and "don't do that" because if they did, it's time to die. Ancient civilizations had these as well as modern society today. What happened? Diseases. Terrible things have happened so we have fundraisers for AIDS, HIV, and the like.

My take on this is simply that these diseases are punishment in an alternate way from God. If they won't be punished or executed, let them suffer the consequences of the act. Why doesn't God stop the sickness in the world? Well I have a theory about that. Maybe since we disobeyed His laws we're getting punished.

---> Does anyone know everything? No. Does anyone know half of everything? No... Ok, imagine you knew half of everything. Is it possible that God exists in the other half you don't know? Then someone might say, "No, because god is undefined, and there is no reason to believe in something that natural phenomena can explain." Well, I've got to say to that person, "The God of the Bible is indeed defined, and if you'd look into the information found, it is much more logical to believe God created it than a rock did."

---> The First Law of Thermodynamics states roughly that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Well then, how could evolution occur? Hmm, I sense a problem. But, they'll say, "Well God couldn't do it then either! HA!" Question: who did you just say couldn't do it? God, right? Since when is God brought down to the level of man? I get this kind of idiotic statement many times, put into different forms. A rough form of it could be asking something like, 'Can God make a rock so big He can't lift it?' Right there you're bringing God down to the level of man, and not considering He's God. This question is based on 'Can God do everything?' Of course not. He can't learn for one (already knows it all). He can't sin. He can't do anything unrighteous. Jesus often answered a question with a question. What do you say to these morons who ask this crap? Well, "In geometry, a ray goes on forever in one direction, and a line goes on forever in both directions. Tell me, which one is longer?" You ask 'em to answer that and then you'll tell him about the rock.

---> "God is so cruel; he puts people in hell cause he's mean." Whatever. This is based on the assumption that man is good, when he is not. Have you lied? You're a lier then. Have you stolen? Then you're a thief. Have you looked lustfully at another man/woman? Jesus said those who do this have committed adultery already in their hearts. Have you done this? Yes, so you're an adulterer. These are just three of the Ten Commandments (and there are more than just the Ten Commandments to live by). You are a thieving, lying, adulterer. Sounds pretty just to throw you into Hell. God cannot stand sin. You can't walk in like it's a bar. It's not like the cartoons where it's an eternal dream taking place in the clouds. It's holy. How do you get there? Commit your heart to Jesus.

---> If God intervened with every major and minor thing that happened on earth then He wouldn't be God. There would be no free will since he'd be a bodyguard to everyone and everything. God is letting "the suffering" occur because of man's sin.

---> An analogy by Kent Hovind about God. "In plane geometry, you deal with just flat substances. Now, we'll suppose we have two people: Mr. and Mrs. Flat. They are squares that live in Flatland on a piece of paper. They have no comprehention of the third dimension at all. We are three-dimensional people. We can see two-dimensions, and we understand width, height, and depth. But, in a sense, we really don't see depth. You can take a photograph of what you're looking at but you would still perceive the depth in it, even though it's a flat substance. 3D is just something we perceive; we cannot see it. Mr. Flat would see Mrs. Flat as a straight line. He can walk around her and understand she's a square. She can do the same, but they both only see each other as straight lines. Suppose I put a finger on the paper on Mr. Flat's side while Mrs. Flat wasn't looking. Since I created them by drawing them, I'd like them to get to understand me, the creator. Now, I cannot put a 3D object into a 2D land, I can only put my finger on the paper. So Mr. Flat comes along and sees my finger and tells Mrs. Flat, 'I've seen him: he's a circle.' He only saw the cross section of my finger. Then, I put three fingers on the paper next to Mrs. Flat while Mr. Flat wasn't looking. Mrs. Flat goes over to Mr. Flat and says, 'Oh no honey, I've seen him. He's three circles.' Both have a very small and limited view of what I truely am. Both are right...and wrong at the same time. There is no possible way that I'll ever be able to explain who I am to the 2D people. But yet, I have the capacity of being closer to them, than they are to each other, and they aren't even aware of my presence."

---> An explaination by me about God. I think God has a completely different deminsion to begin with. He is beyond length, width, height, and depth. He's beyond time and other dimensions. God's vision of the universe is beyond all nature, since He created it. The people who invented the car, the computer, and the calculator are above and beyond their creation. Those things can't envision it, however, if they were alive, since they can only understand the data put into the calculator, or car, or computer. The creators of these things aren't affected by them. The inventor of the watch isn't affected by it. He made the watch! And since God is the creator, and since He wouldn't be affected by His creation, this would rule out the god of the pantheist view, like god is the rock, or god is the tree, or god is the water. This is a very limited and pantheistic view of God. He's really above and beyond his creation: unaffected by it. If He wants to come down and walk on water or raise the dead He could if He wanted to. He is unlimited totally to it. That is the Christian God: the God that says "Poof! There's the world." And if it sounds fantastic to you, does God care?

---> Consider the movie "I, Robot." Yes, it's not a godly movie. But one point brought up in it is the fact that the robots are programmed to save the life of a person who has more of a percentage of surviving. That's where a programmed machine cannot discern what to do, like what a human can. In the case of saving people from Hell, the easier one to save would obviously be the one to save last, if the case were between two people in danger. The person more likely to survive can hold on longer than the other, so it's in human nature to take the harder first and the easier last. If a person is taking a test on something, the intelligent mind would choose to answer the hardest questions first. The easier questions can wait since the mind holds the information with less stress. Once the harder questions are accomplished no worries are held any longer. The easier questions become the target. This especially concerns a timed test. If the harder questions are answered, the easier questions can be answered at greater pace, thus finishing on time. The same logic must be applied with saving a soul. The less the risk, the better to hold it 'till the end.

---> The atheist excuse: "I can do anything I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone." To any Christian this may seem as evil a statement as blaspheming God. There is, however, only one thing I can think of that cancels out this statement. It may be only a single reply, but it involves unlimited thought. Is abortion wrong? Naturally, the atheist would respond with, "It's the mother's choice." Does the baby have a choice? If the fetus or embryo is human, wouldn't it be murder? As if any atheist would have the right to judge if it is! Is murder wrong to an atheist? "Well it hurts someone, doesn't it? Of course!" Is killing an unborn child murder? By what standard does the skeptic judge if it is or isn't? If it is, it would be hurting someone, correct? If it isn't, proof must be supplied for this claim. Is there proof? Not a trace. So if an atheist or skeptic says something like, "I can do anything I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone," ask them if abortion is murder. That'll get them thinking. Explain the bumping and shoving inside the womb as the child is pinched apart and pulled out piece by piece in a mid-term abortion. Explain how the baby moves inside the womb. Explain the thrashing arms and legs of a baby just before the "doctors" plunge the scissors into the back of the neck and suction out the brains in a partial-birth abortion. That'll get them thinking.

---> Divorce is looked down at by God. Here's a parable. Let's say the man and the woman who married were two nails, put by point into into a single wooden board. The nails connot be taken out unless by force. If the nails were to be driven out after a very brief period they would probably still be straight and sharp enough to hammer into another board. On the other hand, if the nails were to be taken out after a long period, they would most definitely be stubbed, bent slightly, and/or rusted. After all, the nail has been out in the rain and sun for years. It would most definitely have something wrong with it if driven out after all it's been through. After a long while, a nail might come out without being destroyed, but on only very rare occasions. But the search for a new board to drive into would be very long, for the house is built. Occasionally there might be something in need of fixing, so the nail is used again. And that's the parable of the nail. A story like many people's divorce situations today, unless the couple has kids, then this is a totally void parable.